Intersecting road estimation device

ABSTRACT

An intersecting road estimation device includes an object detection unit that detects an object existing around an own vehicle and a position of the object, an object extraction unit that extracts a stationary object and a position of the stationary object from an object detection result, a first estimation unit that estimates a road edge of a traveling road on which the own vehicle is traveling based on the position of the stationary object, a candidate extraction unit that extracts a stationary object existing outside the road edge of the traveling road estimated by the first estimation unit as a candidate for an outside stationary object representing a road edge of an intersecting road intersecting the traveling road, and a second estimation unit that estimates the road edge of the intersecting road based on a position of the outside stationary object extracted by the candidate extraction unit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No.2018-132373 filed on Jul. 12, 2018, the description of which isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a technique for estimating (supposing)a road edge of an intersecting road that intersects with a road on whichan own vehicle is traveling (hereinafter also referred to as “travelingroad”).

Related Art

A technique described detects, among objects ahead of an own vehicle,roadside structures forming the shape of a traveling road using a laserradar or the like, and calculates the distance from a road edge in thewidth direction of the traveling road to the own vehicle based on theposition of the roadside structure that is closest to the vehicle andthe radius of curvature of the road.

SUMMARY

As an aspect of the present disclosure, an intersecting road estimationdevice that is vehicle-mounted is provided. The intersecting roadestimation device includes: an object detection unit configured todetect an object existing around an own vehicle and a position of theobject; an object extraction unit configured to extract a stationaryobject and a position of the stationary object from an object detectionresult provided by the object detection unit; a first estimation unitconfigured to estimate a road edge of a traveling road on which the ownvehicle is traveling based on the position of the stationary objectextracted by the object extraction unit; a candidate extraction unitconfigured to extract a stationary object existing outside the road edgeof the traveling road estimated by the first estimation unit as acandidate for an outside stationary object representing a road edge ofan intersecting road intersecting the traveling road; and a secondestimation unit configured to estimate the road edge of the intersectingroad based on a position of the outside stationary object extracted bythe candidate extraction unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an intersecting road estimation deviceof the present embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a process of estimating a road edge of anintersecting road;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing road edges of a traveling road androad edges of an intersecting road;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating detection of the road edgesof the traveling road;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating misrecognition of a road edgeof an intersecting road; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating estimation of a moving objecttraveling on an intersecting road.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The technique described in JP 4100269 B detects, among objects ahead ofan own vehicle, roadside structures forming the shape of a travelingroad using a laser radar or the like, and calculates the distance from aroad edge in the width direction of the traveling road to the ownvehicle based on the position of the roadside structure that is closestto the vehicle and the radius of curvature of the road.

In addition to the road on which the own vehicle is traveling, it may bedesirable to estimate (suppose) a road edge of an intersecting road thatintersects the traveling road and use it to estimate a moving objectthat is moving towards the vehicle on the intersecting road in the samedirection as that of the road edge. However, when stationary objectssuch as roadside structures existing in front of the vehicle are to bedetected by a laser radar or the like as in the technique described inJP 4100269 B, the detected stationary objects would include bothstationary objects at the road edges in the width direction of thetraveling road, and stationary objects at the road edges in the widthdirection of the intersecting road intersecting that road.

The inventors made a detailed study, and found out a problem that thetechnique disclosed in JP 4100269 B does not consider estimating a roadedge of an intersecting road intersecting the traveling road from thedetection results in which the stationary objects at the road edges ofthe traveling road and the stationary objects at the road edges of theintersecting road are mixed.

An embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with referenceto the drawings.

[1. Configuration]

A vehicle-mounted intersecting road estimation (supposition) system 2shown in FIG. 1 includes a sensor group 10, an intersecting roadestimation device 20, a speaker 40, and a display 42. The sensor group10 includes a millimeter-wave radar 12, a camera 14, and a vehicle speedsensor 16.

The millimeter wave radar 12 emits a search wave that isfrequency-modulated with a triangular wave from an antenna, receives areflected wave reflected from an object existing around an own vehicleby the antenna, and outputs a beat signal after performing mixing.

Since the waveform of a beat signal changes in response to aninterference generated according to the distance to the object and arelative speed of the object with respect to the own vehicle, it ispossible to calculate the distance between the own vehicle and theobject and the relative speed of the object with respect to the ownvehicle from the waveform of the beat signal. Further, since a reflectedwave is received if an object exists in the direction in which thesearch wave is emitted, the direction of the object existing around theown vehicle with respect to the own vehicle can be detected. Therelative position of the object with respect to the own vehicle can bedetected based on the distance between the own vehicle and the objectand the direction of the object with respect to the own vehicle.

The camera 14 captures an image of an area in front of the vehicle andoutputs image data. The distance between the own vehicle and the objectand the relative position of the object with respect to the own vehiclemay be detected based on the object's position, distance from the ownvehicle, and direction with respect to the own vehicle represented bythe image data captured by the camera 14. The vehicle speed sensor 16detects a vehicle speed based on a rotation speed of the wheels of theown vehicle.

The main component of the intersecting road estimation device 20 is awell-known microcomputer including a CPU, a semiconductor memory such asRAM, ROM, or flash memory, and an output/input interface. Hereinafter,the semiconductor memory may also be simply referred to as a memory.Various functions of the intersecting road estimation device 20 areimplemented by the CPU executing a program(s) stored in a non-transitorytangible recording medium.

In this example, the memory corresponds to the non-transitory tangiblerecording medium for storing the program. Further, a methodcorresponding to the program is performed by execution of the program.The intersecting road estimation device 20 may include one or moremicrocomputers.

The intersecting road estimation device 20 includes, as a configurationof functions implemented by the CPU executing the program, an objectdetection unit 22, an object extraction unit 24, a first estimation unit26, a candidate extraction unit 28, a second estimation unit 30, anobject estimation unit 32, and a notification unit 34.

The means for implementing these elements constituting the intersectingroad estimation device 20 is not limited to software, and a part or allof the elements may be implemented by using one or more hardwarecomponents. For example, when the above functions are implemented by anelectronic circuit which is hardware, the electronic circuit may beimplemented by a digital circuit including many logic circuits or ananalog circuit, or a combination thereof.

[2. Processing]

A road edge estimation process of an intersecting road 220 executed bythe intersecting road estimation device 20 will be described withreference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 2.

In S400, the object detection unit 22 detects an object existing aroundthe own vehicle, a distance between the own vehicle and the object, anda direction of the object with respect to the own vehicle based on adetection signal of the millimeter wave radar 12 or image data capturedby the camera 14. Further, the object detection unit 22 detects arelative position of the object with respect to the own vehicle from thedistance between the own vehicle and the object and the direction of theobject with respect to the own vehicle.

In S402, the object detection unit 22 detects a relative speed of theobject with respect to the own vehicle based on a beat signal output bythe millimeter wave radar 12. The object detection unit 22 may alsodetect a moving speed of the object from a positional change of theobject per unit time, based on image data captured by the camera 14, anddetect a relative speed of the object with respect to the own vehiclebased on the detected moving speed and a vehicle speed of the ownvehicle.

In S404, the object extraction unit 24 extracts stationary object(s) outof objects existing around the own vehicle detected by the objectdetection unit 22, based on a vehicle speed of the own vehicle acquiredfrom the vehicle speed sensor 16 and a relative speed of the object withrespect to the own vehicle detected by the object detection unit 22.Further, the object extraction unit 24 extracts a relative position ofthe stationary object with respect to the own vehicle from the detectionresults of the object detection unit 22. The object extraction unit 24may extract an object whose position does not change as a stationaryobject out of the objects existing around the own vehicle detected bythe object detection unit 22.

In S406, as shown in FIG. 3, the first estimation unit 26 groups aplurality of stationary objects 300 existing along a traveling road 200on which the own vehicle 100 is traveling and extracted by the objectextraction unit 24, and forms a stationary object group 302.

The stationary object group 302 is composed of such stationary objects300 that, on each side of the traveling road 200, the distance betweeneach other in the width direction of the traveling road 200 is within apredetermined range that is considered to represent a continuous roadedge along the traveling direction. Therefore, stationary objects 300existing on opposite sides of the traveling road 200 in the widthdirection form different stationary object groups 302.

For example, the stationary objects 300 are each a detected pointcorresponding to a single object detected by the millimeter wave radar12, or each a detected point corresponding to a part of a continuousobject such as a wall or a guardrail detected by the millimeter waveradar 12. The stationary objects detected as detected points are notlimited to walls and guardrails, but may also be curbs, buildings, orthe like.

The first estimation unit 26 sets an approximate straight line thatapproximates positions of the stationary objects 300 constituting thestationary object group 302. For example, the first estimation unit 26sets the approximate straight line such that the sum of the squares ofdistances between the approximate straight line and the stationaryobjects 300 is minimized. Then, the first estimation unit 26 estimates(supposes) the approximate straight lines set from the left and rightstationary object groups 302 of the traveling road 200 as road edges 304of the traveling road 200.

Note that, when the own vehicle 100 is traveling without stopping, it isdesirable that the first estimation unit 26 detects stationary objects300 existing on each side of the traveling road 200 in the widthdirection, and estimates the road edges 304 of the traveling road 200based on the positions of the stationary objects 300. This is becausewhen the own vehicle 100 is traveling, different stationary objects 300can be speed-separated according to their relative speed with respect tothe own vehicle 100, which allows the detection accuracy of thestationary objects 300 to be improved.

Further, since the vehicle width of the traveling road 200 does notchange suddenly, the road edges 304 of the traveling road 200 ahead ofthe own vehicle 100 in the traveling direction can be considered to lieon the extensions of the road edges 304 of the traveling road 200estimated until that point.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, as the own vehicle 100 moves forward, thefirst estimation unit 26 may extend the road edges 304 a of thetraveling road 200 on the side of the own vehicle 100 with respect tothe intersection 210 estimated so far, as indicated by arrows 304 b, anduse them as candidates for the road edges of the traveling road 200 thatare beyond the intersection 210 in the traveling direction of the ownvehicle 100.

Then, the first estimation unit 26 may obtain the average positions ofroad edges 304 c of the traveling road 200 estimated based on thestationary object groups 302 that are beyond the intersection 210 in thetraveling direction of the own vehicle 100 and the arrows 304 b extendedfrom the road edges 304 a estimated so far, and use the obtained averagepositions as the road edges 304 of the traveling road 200 extendingbeyond the intersection 210 in the traveling direction of the ownvehicle 100.

In S408, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the candidate extraction unit 28extracts, as candidates for the outside stationary objects 310representing the road edge 314 of the intersecting road 220 intersectingwith the traveling road 200, stationary objects existing outside theroad edges 304 of the traveling road 200 extracted by the objectextraction unit 24.

However, as shown in FIG. 5, even when a stationary object 316 existsoutside the road edge 304 of the traveling road 200, when the stationaryobject 316 is closer to the own vehicle 100 by a predetermined distanceor more than the stationary object 300 a that is the starting point ofthe stationary object group 302 on the own vehicle 100 side, thecandidate extraction unit 28 excludes the stationary object 316 from thecandidates for the outside stationary objects 310 representing the roadedge of the intersecting road 220.

The position of the stationary object 316 excluded from the outerstationary object 310 is, for example, the position of a point ofcontact between a road sign 50 and the road, as shown in FIG. 5.

The above-mentioned predetermined distance used to determine whether thestationary object 316 should be excluded from the candidates for theoutside stationary objects 310 representing the road edge of theintersecting road 220 is such a distance that it can be judged that thestationary object 316 is located such that the stationary object 316 istoo far from the stationary object 300 a, which is the starting point ofthe stationary object group 302 on the own vehicle 100 side, toward theown vehicle 100 side when the stationary object 316 is used as thecandidate for the outside stationary objects 310 representing the roadedge 314 of the intersecting road 220.

In S410, the second estimation unit 30 sets an approximate straight linethat approximates the positions of the outside stationary objects 310constituting a stationary object group 312 similarly to the firstestimation unit 26. The second estimation unit 30 estimates theapproximate straight line set on the further side of the intersectingroad 220 as seen in the traveling direction of the own vehicle 100 asthe road edge 314 of the intersecting road 220.

Further, the second estimation unit 30 estimates the position anddirection of the road edge 314 of the intersecting road 220 to beestimated in the current processing cycle based on the position anddirection of the road edge 314 of the intersecting road 220 estimatedbased on the outside stationary objects 310 in the current processingcycle, and the position and direction of the road edge 314 of theintersecting road 220 stored in the memory in each processing cycleperformed up to that point. Then, the second estimation unit 30 storesthe determined position and direction of the road edge 314 of theintersecting road 220 in the memory.

In S412, the object estimation unit 32 extracts the positions and movingdirections of moving objects moving on the traveling road 200 and theintersecting road 220 from the detection result of the object detectionunit 22. Then, the object estimation unit 32 estimates the position andmoving direction of a moving object 110 moving on the intersecting road220 based on the positions and moving directions of the moving objectsand the position and direction of the road edge 314 of the intersectingroad 220. The object estimation unit 32 estimates the moving directionof the moving object 110 moving on the intersecting road 220 as thedirection along the road edge 314 of the intersecting road 220.

As shown in FIG. 6, when the position of the moving object 112 is behindthe road edge 314 of the intersecting road 220 estimated by the secondestimation unit 30 with respect to the own vehicle 100, the objectestimation unit 32 determines that the object detection unit 22 haserroneously detected the actual position of the moving object 110because a search wave of the millimeter wave radar 12 was reflected by astructure or the like representing the road edge 314 of the intersectingroad 220.

In this case, the object estimation unit 32 folds back the position ofthe erroneously detected moving object 112 to the opposite side usingthe road edge 314 as the axis of symmetry to correct the position of themoving object 110 to the actual position.

In S414, when it is determined that the moving object 110 moving on theintersecting road 220 is approaching the own vehicle based on theposition and direction of the moving object 110 moving on theintersecting road 220 estimated by the object estimation unit 32, thenotification unit 34 uses a speaker 40 or a display 42 to notify theoccupants of the own vehicle 100 that the moving object is approachingthe own vehicle.

[3. Effects]

According to the present embodiment described above, the followingeffects can be obtained.

(1) The outside stationary objects 310 existing outside the road edges304 of the traveling road 200 on which the own vehicle 100 is travelingare extracted as candidates for the road edge 314 of the intersectingroad 220. This makes it possible to distinguish the stationary objectsrepresenting the road edges 304 of the traveling road 200 from thestationary objects representing the road edge 314 of the intersectingroad 220 from the detection results in which the stationary objectsrepresenting the road edges 304 of the traveling road 200 and thestationary objects representing the road edge 314 of the intersectingroad 220 are mixed. Therefore, the road edge 314 of the intersectingroad 220 can be estimated based on the positions of the extractedoutside stationary objects 310.

(2) As the own vehicle 100 moves forward, the road edges of 304 of thetraveling road 200 that are beyond the intersection 210 in the travelingdirection of the own vehicle 100 are estimated based on the estimationresults of the road edges 304 of the traveling road 200 on the side ofthe own vehicle 100 with respect to the intersection 210 estimated up tothat point.

This makes it possible to estimate the road edges 304 of the travelingroad 200 that are beyond the intersection 210 in the traveling directionof the own vehicle 100 with high accuracy based on the estimationresults of the road edges 304 of the traveling road 200 on the side ofthe own vehicle 100 with respect to the intersection 210 estimated up tothat point.

(3) When the stationary object 316 is closer to the own vehicle 100 sideby a predetermined distance or more than the stationary object 300 arepresenting the starting point of the stationary object group 302 usedto estimate the road edges 304, the stationary object 316 is excludedfrom the candidates for the outside stationary objects 310 representingthe road edge 314 of the intersecting road 220. This makes it possibleto prevent the road sign 50 or the like from being erroneously extractedas the outside stationary object 310 representing the road edge 314 ofthe intersecting road 220.

(4) The position and direction of the road edge 314 of the intersectingroad 220 to be estimated in the current processing cycle are determinedbased on the position and direction of the road edge 314 of theintersecting road 220 estimated in the current processing cycle, and theposition and direction of the road edge 314 of the intersecting road 220stored in the memory in each processing cycle performed up to thatpoint.

This makes it possible to estimate the position and direction of theroad edge 314 of the intersecting road 220 with high accuracy based onthe positions and directions of the road edge 314 of the intersectingroad 220 estimated in multiple processing cycles, instead of thoseestimated in the current single processing cycle.

(5) When a moving object 112 existing outside the road edge 314 of theintersecting road 220 is detected based on the reflected wave of asearch wave emitted from the millimeter wave radar 12, it is judged thatthe actual position of the moving object 110 was erroneously detectedbecause the search wave of the millimeter wave radar 12 was reflected bya structure or the like representing the road edge 314. In this case,the position of the moving object 110 can be corrected to its correctposition by folding back the erroneously detected position of the movingobject 112 to the opposite side with reference to the road edge 314serving as the axis of symmetry.

By correcting the erroneously detected position of the moving object 112to the correct position of the moving object 110 in such a manner basedon the reflected wave of the search wave, it is possible to estimate thepresence of the moving object 110 that is moving on the intersectingroad 220 at a location that cannot be visually recognized from the ownvehicle 100 or cannot be captured by the camera 14.

In the above-described embodiment, the speaker 40 and the display 42correspond to a notification device.

Further, S400 and S402 correspond to processing performed by an objectdetection unit, S404 corresponds to processing performed by an objectextraction unit, S406 corresponds to processing performed by a firstestimation unit, S408 corresponds to processing performed by a candidateextraction unit, S410 corresponds to processing performed by a secondestimation unit, S412 corresponds to processing performed by an objectestimation unit, and 414 corresponds to processing performed by anotification unit.

4. Other Embodiments

An embodiment for implementing the present disclosure has been describedabove, but the present disclosure is not limited to the above-describedembodiment and can be implemented with various modifications.

(1) Instead of the millimeter wave radar 12 or the camera 14 used todetect objects around the own vehicle 100 in the above embodiment,objects around the own vehicle 100 may be detected based on, forexample, LiDAR detection signals. LiDAR is an abbreviation for LightDetection and Ranging.

(2) When the traveling road 200 and the intersecting road 220 areorthogonal to each other as in the above embodiment, outside stationaryobjects of the intersecting road 220 on the own vehicle 100 side cannotbe detected, and therefore the road edge of the intersecting road 220 onthe own vehicle 100 side cannot be estimated. In contrast, when theintersecting road intersects the traveling road diagonally with respectto the own vehicle, it may be possible to detect outside stationaryobjects on each side of the intersecting road in the width direction. Inthis case, the road edges of the intersecting road may be estimatedbased on the outside stationary objects existing on each side of theintersecting road in the width direction.

(3) A plurality of functions of a single component of the aboveembodiment may be implemented by a plurality of components, or a singlefunction of a single component may be implemented by a plurality ofcomponents. Further, a plurality of functions of a plurality ofcomponents may be implemented by a single component, or a singlefunction implemented by a plurality of components may be realized by asingle component. Furthermore, a part of the configuration of the aboveembodiment may be omitted. Furthermore, at least a part of theconfiguration of the above embodiment may be added or a substituted inthe configuration of the other embodiments described above. Note thatall of the modes included in the technical spirit specified from thewording of the claims are embodiments of the present disclosure.

(4) Besides the above-described intersecting road estimation device 20,the present disclosure may be implemented in various forms such as anintersecting road estimation system including the intersecting roadestimation device 20, a program for causing a computer to function asthe intersecting road estimation device 20, a non-transitory tangiblerecording medium such as a semiconductor memory storing the program, andan intersecting road estimation method.

One aspect of the present disclosure is preferably to provide atechnique for estimating (supposing) a road edge of an intersecting roadthat intersects a road on which an own vehicle is traveling.

A vehicle-mounted intersecting road estimation (supposition) device (20)according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes an objectdetection unit (22, S400), an object extraction unit (24, S404), a firstestimation (supposition) unit (26, S406), a candidate extraction unit(28, S408), and a second estimation (supposition) unit (30, S410).

The object detection unit detects an object (110, 300, 310, 316)existing around an own vehicle (100) and a position of the object. Theobject extraction unit extracts a stationary object (300, 310, 316) anda position of the stationary object from an object detection resultprovided by the object detection unit. The first estimation unitestimates (supposes) a road edge (304) of a traveling road (200) onwhich the own vehicle is traveling based on the position of thestationary object extracted by the object extraction unit.

The candidate extraction unit extracts a stationary object (310)existing outside the road edge of the traveling road estimated by thefirst estimation unit as a candidate for an outside stationary objectrepresenting a road edge (314) of an intersecting road (220)intersecting the traveling road. The second estimation unit estimates(supposes) the road edge of the intersecting road based on a position ofthe outside stationary object extracted by the candidate extractionunit.

According to such a configuration, even when the stationary objects tobe extracted by the object extraction unit include both the stationaryobjects representing the road edges of the traveling road and thestationary objects representing the road edges of the intersecting road,it is possible to extract stationary objects located outside the roadedges of the traveling road as candidates for outside stationary objectsrepresenting the road edges of the intersecting road. This makes itpossible to estimate (suppose) the road edges of the intersecting roadbased on the positions of the outside stationary objects.

What is claimed is:
 1. An intersecting road estimation device that isvehicle-mounted, comprising: an object detection unit configured todetect an object existing around an own vehicle and a position of theobject; an object extraction unit configured to extract a stationaryobject and a position of the stationary object from an object detectionresult provided by the object detection unit; a first estimation unitconfigured to estimate a road edge of a traveling road on which the ownvehicle is traveling based on the position of the stationary objectextracted by the object extraction unit; a candidate extraction unitconfigured to extract a stationary object existing outside the road edgeof the traveling road estimated by the first estimation unit as acandidate for an outside stationary object representing a road edge ofan intersecting road intersecting the traveling road; and a secondestimation unit configured to estimate the road edge of the intersectingroad based on a position of the outside stationary object extracted bythe candidate extraction unit.
 2. The intersecting road estimationdevice according to claim 1, wherein the second estimation unit isconfigured to estimate the road edge of the intersecting road byapproximating positions of at least two points of the outside stationaryobject with a straight line.
 3. The intersecting road estimation deviceaccording to claim 1, wherein the first estimation unit is configured toestimate the road edge of the traveling road that is beyond anintersection in a traveling direction of the own vehicle based on anestimation result of the road edge of the traveling road obtainedpreviously.
 4. The intersecting road estimation device according toclaim 1, wherein the second estimation unit is configured to store aposition and direction of the road edge of the intersecting road in eachprocessing cycle for estimating the road edge of the intersecting road,and determine the position and direction of the road edge of theintersecting road to be estimated in the current processing cycle basedon the position and direction of the road edge of the intersecting roadestimated in the current processing cycle and the position and directionof the road edge of the intersecting road stored in one or more previouscycles.
 5. The intersecting road estimation device according to claim 1,wherein the first estimation unit deems, among the stationary objectsrepresenting the road edge of the traveling road, stationary objectswhose distance from each other is within a predetermined range to be astationary object group, and the candidate extraction unit is configuredto exclude, among the stationary objects located outside the road edgeof the traveling road, a stationary object separated towards an ownvehicle side by a predetermined distance or more from the position ofthe stationary object that is a starting point of the stationary objectgroup on the own vehicle side, from candidates for the outsidestationary objects.
 6. The intersecting road estimation device accordingto claim 1, wherein the object detection unit is configured to detect arelative speed of the object with respect to the own vehicle, and theobject extraction unit is configured to detect the stationary objectbased on the relative speed of the object detected by the objectdetection unit and a vehicle speed of the own vehicle.
 7. Theintersecting road estimation device according to claim 1, wherein theobject extraction unit is configured to detect the stationary objectbased on a change in the position of the object.
 8. The intersectingroad estimation device according to claim 1, wherein the firstestimation unit is configured to estimate the road edge of the travelingroad when the own vehicle is traveling.
 9. The intersecting roadestimation device according to claim 1, further comprising an objectestimation unit configured to extract a moving object and a position ofthe moving object from the object detection result provided by theobject detection unit and estimate a position and moving direction ofthe moving object moving on the intersecting road based on the positionof the moving object and a position and direction of the road edge ofthe intersecting road.
 10. The intersecting road estimation deviceaccording to claim 9, wherein the object estimation unit is configuredto estimate the moving direction of the moving object as a directionalong the road edge of the intersecting road.
 11. The intersecting roadestimation device according to claim 9, wherein the object detectionunit is configured to detect the position of the object by using asearch wave and a reflected wave, and when the position of the movingobject is on a further side of the road edge of the intersecting roadwith respect to the own vehicle, the object estimation unit corrects theposition of the object such that the moving object on the further sideof the road edge of the intersecting road with respect to the ownvehicle is at a position reflected about the road edge of theintersecting road serving as an axis of symmetry.
 12. The intersectingroad estimation device according to claim 9, further comprising anotification unit configured to notify an occupant of the own vehiclethat the moving object is approaching by using a notification devicewhen it is determined that the moving object is approaching the ownvehicle based on the position and moving direction of the moving objectestimated by the object estimation unit.